Skate
by Crazy Sunshine Hikaru
Summary: While learning from Riza how to skate, Roy learned a couple other things as well... Oneshot, Slightly AU I suppose. Not really romantic, but it can be if you want it to be.


(Another RoyxRiza oneshot, eh? I love these two, and I got the idea for this while listening to Bonnie Pink's song "Orange." That song inspires me a lot, actually, and I figure since winter is coming up, I'd write something wintery.)

**Skate**

It was strange holding her small hands in his. She guided him across the ice, calm and surprisingly patient. His feet felt heavy in the skates. He felt clumsy, unsure, nervous. Roy Mustang never got nervous, and yet here he was, learning how to ice skate with his best friend, and he felt…nervous. Anxious. He was the exact opposite of the vibes Riza was giving off.

"Try to stay balanced," she instructed him, skating backwards, preparing to let go of his hands. "This is a lot faster than regular skating." When her grip loosened on Roy's fingers, he clutched for dear life.

"Please don't let go," he begged. "I'm still not used to it yet."

Sighing, Riza held on, continuing to skate.

"You're never going to get the hang of it if you don't learn to do it by yourself."

"I know, but still…"

"You remember how I showed you to walk on the ground in skates, right?"

"Yeah."

"Apply that here." Slowing down her own skating, Riza slipped her hands out of Roy's grip and glided backwards. His eyes widened with fear. "You'll be fine. Just remember what I told you. Stay balanced." She began to glide away from Roy.

"Wait!"

"Most of all, stay calm. If you panic you're more likely to fall."

An apprehensive Roy made one deliberate step forward, then another, his arms held out to his sides for balance. He advanced a foot or two across the ice before slipping. Riza raised her eyebrows in slight alarm.

"And should you feel like you're about to fall, try to fall backwards. It's better to land on your butt than your face."

Cheeks red from the cold air, Roy carefully tried skating across the ice again. Fear was still plastered on his face, but he made it further across before slipping again. He fell, falling forward, looking like he belly flopped onto the frozen lake. Riza skated around where he fell before stopping in front of his head. She knelt down in an offer to help.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." Roy felt deep embarrassment as Riza assisted him in standing back up.

"You'll get better at it. It takes practice. Also, when you fall make sure you keep your fingers inside your fist or something. When other people are skating and you fall, you don't want to get your fingers sliced off."

The color drained from Roy's face as Riza returned to skating. He never thought of the blades on the bottoms of his skates as…well, blades. They're dangerous things. This is a dangerous sport.

* * *

The sun had started to go down when they decided it was time to stop. With snowboots fitting snugly around their feet and legs, Roy and Riza started trudging along the country road leading into town, Roy carrying his father's old skates slung over his shoulder and Riza carrying hers to her side. Riza hummed quietly to herself, and Roy watched her out of the corner of his eye. He had known Riza all of his life, yet in fifteen years he never noticed how her blonde hair framed her face, or how soft her brown eyes were, or how smooth her skin was. He never saw how peaceful she looked when she hummed. He smiled a small, secret smile as he listened to her hum.

"That's a pretty song," he commented at length.

"Thank you." Riza made no eye contact with him. "It's a song my mother used to hum all the time. She sang me to sleep with that song when I was little."

Roy's fuzzy mood sobered a little. He remembered when Riza's mother died and how after the funeral she changed. Before, she was a bright, bubbly girl. She played with the other girls and went to slumber parties. She wasn't exactly talkative, but she wasn't quiet either. Then once she didn't show up at school for three days, and when she came back she sat by herself at lunch and didn't speak up in class. When Roy approached her and asked what was wrong, a tear slid down her cheek, and she hid her face.

That was the only time he saw her cry over her mother.

Without thinking too much about it, Roy reached for Riza's free hand and held it carefully in his. She still refused to look at him, but she continued to speak.

"She was the one who taught me how to ice skate. Every winter we would skate on the lake from sunup to sundown. I loved skating with her…" Her voice trailed off, and she stopped for a second to look at the sky. "I can even fit her old skates." A tear fell from the corner of her eye, followed by a downpour of them as Riza choked out a silent sob. "I never got to skate that much after she died. Father wanted me to do all of the housework, and between that and school, I never had time for me. I never really had time to skate."

"Riza…" Roy was at a loss for words. He had no idea just how much she was holding in. He wished there was something he could do to ease that pain, help her in some way. He felt selfish for asking Riza to teach him how to skate. It wasn't even because he had any genuine interest in the sport; he just wanted to be ready for Scarlette Pierce in his social studies class, who dropped hints at wanting to skate with him and how romantic it would be. Roy had no idea that skating was such an important thing to Riza.

"I was really happy when you asked me to skate with you," she whispered, still crying. "There isn't anyone else I wanted to skate with." Turning to him, Riza smiled. "I was scared I was going to forget how to skate."

"You didn't seem to have any trouble at all," Roy said with sincerity.

"It was frightening. I haven't done it in years."

"Well, you did better than me," he offered.

"That's not saying much. This is your first time skating ever," Riza said with a chuckle. "It was nice though, really. Thank you."

"No problem." He gave her his widest smile. "Anything for you." Reaching out, Roy used his glove to wipe away Riza's tears. "It's okay to cry, you know. I'm not gonna think any less of you if you do."

Riza nodded, sniffling a little.

"I'm always here for you. Always. Whenever you want to go skating or anything else, ask me. I'll drop everything to do it. Okay?"

"Okay." Her mood lifted at Roy's words, and he gave her hand an encouraging squeeze. It was a lot to promise someone, but Roy felt confident he could do it.

* * *

It was the middle of class, the teacher giving one of his famously boring lectures. Roy slumped over his desk, using his social studies textbook as a pillow, halfway asleep when the rustling of notebook paper roused him. In girly handwriting, Scarlette had written a note:

_Do you want to go ice skating with me this Saturday?_

Roy looked thoughtful for a moment, then scribbled down a reply underneath the message:

_Nope, sorry. I have plans to go skating with my friend already. Maybe some other time?_

He slipped the note back to her and returned to sleep, anticipating the next skating lesson Riza would give him.


End file.
